HONOLULU, Hi. – The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team earned their first win of the season on Saturday, Nov. 12 in the final game of the Alaska/Hawaii Challenge, hosted by Hawaii Pacific.
The 'Nooks knocked-off the Chaminade Silverswords 82-76 behind 17 points from point guard,
Bryan Nguyen, a double-double from
Nick Hopkins and 14 points from freshman
Tyler Mrus. At the break, the Nanooks held a 41-35 at the break before the two sides both put up 41 in the second half resulting in the Nanooks' 82-76 win, their first of the year.
Bryan Nguyen got the Nanooks scoring started 1:21 into the game with a pair of free throws. The two traded buckets and leads through the opening eight minutes in the first half. At the 12:11 mark of the first,
Demarcus Hall-Scriven knocked down a three, giving the Nanooks a 16-15 lead. They extended their lead to 22-15 on a pair of
Abdullahi Mohamed free throws before Chaminade got back on the board with a fastbreak bucket. The Silverswords battled back to take a 27-26 lead with 4:57 remaining in the half but that was their final lead of the half.
Jaycson Bereal, Jr. put up four-straight, giving the 'Nooks a three-point lead.
Their lead grew to six on a Nguyen layup, making it 39-33 before another Nguyen bucket on a fastbreak made it 41-35 heading into the break.
Coming out of halftime, the Nanooks' lead grew to 13 on a
Nick Hopkins layup making it 52-39. After knocking down a pair of technical foul free throws, Chaminade started to crawl closer, cutting the lead to five at the 12:53 mark. Following a steal by
Demarcus Hall-Scriven, Nguyen scored again on the fastbreak, extending the lead back to 10.
Alaska's lead fell to only one with just over four minutes remaining after CUH hit a free throw following a flop technical. The free throw made it 72-71 Nanooks. This did not halt the Alaska offense as they went on a 9-0 run to take a 10-point lead at 81-71.
Tyler Mrus hit a free throw down the stretch to make it 82-73 before Chaminade connected on a late three-pointer to make the final score 82-76.
Nguyen ended with 17 points on 6-9 shooting, 1-2 from three and 4-4 from the free-throw line. He added three assists, two rebounds and one steal.
Nick Hopkins posted his first career double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. He added two assists while shooting 6-11 from the floor. Mrus scored 14 on 5-9 shooting while picking up three steals, two assists and rebounds and one block.
The Nanooks head to California for the CSUMB hosted tournament next weekend.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team, follow @NanooksMBB on Instagram or Twitter, or like the Alaska Nanooks athletics page on Facebook.
